Many of you probably watched a show on tv that was very very popular called "Seinfeld", featuring the comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The final episode of Seinfeld came to mind this week as I read and re-read the parable of the Good Samaritan. For those who didn't see the episode, let me read to you a synopsis from a BBC web-site:

While waiting for the jet, Jerry, Kramer, George and Elaine witness a mugging and do nothing, except make fun of the muggee. They are then arrested and prosecuted under the 'Good Samaritan Law' … After a long barrage of witnesses … the judge decides that they are very bad (characters) and are sentenced to one year in prison.

The episode's writer clearly and correctly assumes that the viewer will consider the law to be ridiculous. Even the most cynical of persons is likely to know that you can't force people to be Good Samaritans. Good Samaritans act out what they feel in their hearts, not what they read in a law book.

Notice that the parable of the Good Samaritan was first told to a lawyer. The lawyer comes to Jesus wanting to know what law would get him eternal life.

Jesus quotes from the Law, "You are to love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength." Jesus then adds, "You are to love your neighbor as yourself."

Notice that the law is about something that comes from the heart. The law didn't say how much to sacrifice in the temple, how many prayers to say, how many times to go to church or which holy symbol to carry. That's probably the kind of legalistic answer that the lawyer was looking for. Jesus answers: "Love God with everything that you have." and "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Then He tells a parable that continues to challenge us today. Why? Because we are told that goodness comes from within, not by action of law. The Good Samaritan was moved to "pity," we are told. And he takes the wounded man to an inn, pays for two nights food and lodging and pledges to be good for the rest of the bill when he returns.

How about the two men who passed by the wounded man and did nothing? It's helpful to know that in that day, there were laws that would have prevented priests and Levites from following their natural inclinations to help the injured man. The Priest and the Levite knew that touching the man would have made them "impure." As many of you will remember from last week's sermon, "respect for lawful authority" and the "desire for sacred purity" are two of five moral inclinations that scientific researchers tell us are built into the personalities of all well-functioning people. So, in this case, lawful authority said that touching the man would have fouled the priest and Levite's sacred purity. Jesus makes the point to the lawyer that you can be right with the law and still be wrong with God if you let the law get in the way of other values such as not wanting to let a person die of his wounds.

And don't we all know of cases where what is legal, nonetheless leads to undesirable outcomes?

Jesus wanted the lawyer to abandon legal thinking and examine what the lawyer knew in his heart to be true. And so Jesus begins with two fictional people who pass by the wounded man for legal reasons. Then the Samaritan comes along. The lawyer must have been expecting the Samaritan to pass by also because Samaritan law said that the wounded man wasn't part of the Samaritan's family or country. The moral inclination to favor your own family group is very strong. But the Samaritan is depicted as a man who could feel "pity" for strangers of different ethnicities – an important spiritual goal for those of us who live in our culturally diverse nation. The Samaritan was someone who had learned how to balance his desire to favor his countrymen with the desire to help others.

And so the lawyer learned that legal authority, while important, sometimes needs to be balanced by kindness.

This was a crucial issue to John Wesley, Methodism's founder. He lived in a day when church authorities were controlled by the State – or sometimes were the state. The great majority of the population was threatened by the gallows, excommunication and fear of Hell. The poor and the working-class (there was no middle class) were told in church, "be loyal to the king, respect and obey authority, and don't sin – or we will hang you and send you to Hell." Sunday after Sunday they were told, "Do what you're told and you will go to heaven." Follow our laws, and God will let you into heaven.

John Wesley was born into this environment in the early 1700's. Wesley was enormously charismatic. Imagine a combination of Elvis, the Beatles, and John the Baptist. Wesley drew crowds of as many as 10,000 at a time. He preached the gospel of love and redemption in Christ. And he was considered one of the great threats of his day. Why? First, because he wasn't accountable to any authority but God. The king didn't command him. And the clergy couldn't control him. Second, because he believed in the improvability of the common man. He rightly believed that even the most destitute sinner could turn to God, learn to read, and earn higher wages for his family and become a Good Samaritan. Today most of us take this for granted, but this was considered dangerous and seditious by many of his nation's leaders.

They asked themselves, "Who does John Wesley answer to? He doesn't answer to the king or the Archbishop. He commands tens of thousands at a time. But who commands him?"

In colonies such as New Jersey, Methodists preached a kind of tough, self-reliant, self-educated and hard-scrabble Christianity, saying that we each face God's judgement on our own merits, not based on following laws laid down by the ruling class. And that is one of the reasons why so many participants in the American Revolution were Methodists, and why we built separation of church and state into our Constitution. Where religion is enforced by the rule of law, ruling classes emerge; and the rest of us tend to do the minimum that is necessary to keep us out of hell – and thus practice a minimal, ice-cold, heartless religion that blinds us to our hearts' potentials – sort of the way most Americans pay their taxes, not out of patriotism or civic pride, but rather out of fear of prosecution and with the goal of paying the least that they can legally get away with.

Wesley knew that only a non-legal religion could lead to a Christianity in which people loved God with all their hearts, souls and minds and became Good Samaritans. With stewardship, for example, he knew that a law that required tithing 10% of your income to the church would lead people to give 10% – and no more. Wesley taught us to abandon legal requirements and, instead, look for "Good Samaritan moments" in which heart-felt generosity would be fostered. Wesley taught that each time we grew in our ability to be generous in Christ's name, we would become closer to Christ – not because we were following a law or buying our way into heaven, but because we were becoming better people – moving on to what he called the road to perfection.

You may ask yourself, "Do we ever get there?" Perfection is a process, not a place. And Heaven isn't something that we can build down here. But we can improve ourselves and our world.

In the last episode of Seinfeld, the characters are sent to prison for not being Good Samaritans. We won't build Heaven by helping all the people we see – especially if there are laws that require us to do so. But, regardless of what the laws say, we can freely choose to become Good Samaritans and thus participate in a process that helps make us – and the world – a little better each day.

It's often said that "Rome wasn't built in a day." And I agree. But, some of it was. Good Samaritans don't command armies or tend to get on TV. But they are the ones who improve the world. And I join John Wesley in believing that each of us has the potential to become one.

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